Other than generally giving Rahm indigestion, this looks to be what will take him down.
ADDED- Josh has a little more here.The incident that Massa believes sparked the investigation happened at a wedding reception for one of his staff members. When being razzed about possibly banging one of the bridesmaids he had just danced with, Massa “tousled the hair” of one of his male staffers and said “What I really ought to be doing is f***ing you.”
He just announced, wouldn't take questions. Link and more when I get it.
Added-
WASHINGTON – Embattled Rep. Charles Rangel, facing an investigation by the House ethics committee, says he has decided to temporarily step down from his post as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Rangel made the announcement to reporters on Capitol Hill Wednesday, saying he would not answer any questions. He said, "I hope you don't mind. I don't take questions."
He said that "from the very, very beginning, I had offered" to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to step down from the post.
He said he leaving "to avoid my colleagues having to defend me" during the campaign season.
Yeah, that new guy in the White House hasn't done anything of any consequence. /rolls eyes
President Barack Obama scores well among ethics watchdog groups in his first year in office, though they’d still like to see more from the president.
Obama has wielded the power of the White House to craft an executive order that limited lobbyist hires in his administration, push federal agencies to share more of their data with the public and begin releasing visitor records for the executive complex on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
“After the last eight years, it is refreshing to see a president, through his rhetoric and action, who understands the way that the system works is a problem. That just a great place to start with,” said Meredith McGehee, policy director for the Campaign Legal Center.
By GottaLaff
Dear ClusterFox, Take lessons from these students, if that's even possible:
A group project performed for an ethics course at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.Never mind what I said at the top, Fox would just accuse them of indoctrination.
The assignment was to come up with a journalist's oath.
By GottaLaff
Blagojevich's downfall should be a cautionary tale for Democrats still basking in the reflected glory of Obama's win. [...] [P]owerful Democrats aren't immune to human weaknesses. [...]Obama is surrounding himself with non-Groupthinkers, which is as commendable as it can be frustrating to some. He's setting the tone, which, so far at least, is constructive, ambitious, realistic, and open-minded. Let's hope it stays that way.
But it's precisely when a party achieves power that its members need to start worrying the most about idiocy and greed. When you're in the opposition, you're already down and out, so what difference does it make if your side's idiocy leaves you -- temporarily -- a little bit more down and out? And being in the opposition offers fewer patronage opportunities.
But power really does corrupt.
I'm not predicting a rash of new Blagojevich-type scandals plaguing the new administration. The Obama transition team has already issued unusually stringent ethics rules, and Obama's track record of supporting tough ethics legislation (including an Illinois state ethics law) suggests that he'll continue such efforts as president.
But illegal corruption isn't the only thing Democrats should be on guard against. Gaining political power also corrupts in far more subtle ways.
Members of political majorities succumb easily to smugness and complacency, to the conviction that explaining and justifying ideas is no longer necessary, to the temptation to dismiss critics as so many irrelevant cranks. "Groupthink" is mainly a disease of the powerful and complacent, not the fractious opposition.
Never mind Blagojevich. Majorities can get very dumb indeed -- and what the new Democratic majority most needs to resist are those more subtle forms of intellectual and moral laziness and corruption. For in the end, arrogance and groupthink can prove far more lethal than even the most scandalous financial shenanigans.
Just ask the thousands dead in Iraq.
By GottaLaff
President-elect Barack Obama today released a series of ethics guidelines for those working in the transition operation, a continuation of the anti-lobbying policies adopted by the Illinois senator during his primary and general election campaigns.And from Ambinder:The ethics rules -- no federal lobbyist can raise or contribute money for the transition efforts, no one who has lobbied in the past 12 months can advise the transition on the policy area on which they lobbied, no one involved in the policy work of the transition can lobby on that issue for a calendar year -- were announced by transition co-chair John Podesta during a press briefing for reporters this afternoon. (Full details of the Obama ethics plan for the transition are after the jump.)
Podesta cast the new ethics rules as a leading indicator of what he termed "the most open and transparent transition in history." Podesta added that members of the transition team will sign an ethics code laying out the specific principles announced today. [...]
Podesta said that Obama had no plans to meet with any of the world leaders coming to town for the G20 gathering this weekend and aimed at addressing the global economic crisis. The president-elect would send an emissary to the meetings [...]
Obama Ethics Rules
* Federal lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition.
* Federal lobbyists are prohibited from any lobbying during their work with the transition.
* If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.
* If someone becomes a lobbyist after working on the Transition, they are prohibited from lobbying the Administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.
* A gift ban that is aggressive in reducing the influence of special interests.
Podesta said that agency review teams would be in place by November 18, and he hinted not to expect major cabinet appointments before Thanksgiving.BFPE.
I saw this late last night, but really couldn't process it. Wow. I think Oliver replies the best-
Oliver Willis Declares Himself Sexy, Father Of Jessica Alba’s Baby
If you really are determined to read the pile of palather, it's here.
By GottaLaff
I saw an article I believe on ABC web page that by doing this she controls what information is released since the Personnel board is made up of three people appointed by, you guessed it, Palin.Back to the post, already in progress:
Gov. Sarah Palin wants a state board to review the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan -- taking the unusual step of making an ethics complaint against herself.Her lawyer sent an "ethics disclosure" Monday night to Attorney General Talis Colberg. The governor asked that it go to the three-person Personnel Board as a complaint. While ethics complaints are usually confidential, Palin wants the matter open.
The lawyer, Thomas Van Flein, also asked the state Legislature to drop its own investigation into the Monegan matter. He says the Personnel Board has jurisdiction over ethics.
A senator running the investigation immediately refused.
The 13-page document gives Palin's view of a controversy that's dogged her for weeks in Alaska. [...]
Under state law, the board must hire an independent counsel for complaints against the governor to determine whether evidence of a violation of the state ethics act exists.
I'm getting that Alice in Wonderland feeling...
Let's recap: She brings ethics complaints against herself. She's a foreign policy expert because she lives in a state that is in close proximity to Russia. And she was in an airplane that stopped over in Ireland, so that has become part of her international experience resume.
She also believes in abstinence only, no sex education, yet tried to hide her unmarried 17-year-old daughter's pregnancy.
Speaking of hiding, she refuses to answer any questions from the press after making claims that she is more experienced than Barack Obama, is more of a reformer than he is, and stands up and fights for us better than he does. All that, plus she has a couple of scandals brewing (which explains the hiding).
Maybe that ethics complaint should cover all of the above, too.
Need coffee and breakfast. On the good side, it looks to be starting out as a really pretty day.
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